Founder

Karl E. Johnson, Founding Director of Chesterton House, received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Cornell University. As a student, Karl was active on the soccer team (goalkeeper), the Wind Ensemble (French Horn), and the Outdoor Education and Wilderness Reflections/ Outdoor Odyssey programs. His education included a 5000-mile cross-country bicycle trip, a 21-day NOLS course, mountaineering expeditions in Latin America, and ten weeks on SEA’s tall ships Westward and Corwith Cramer. While an undergraduate, he taught Physical Education classes in day hiking, backpacking, bicycle touring, basic mountaineering, and he started the first service-oriented Physical Education class at Cornell, Trail Maintenance.

After managing the Ithaca Youth Bureau’s Outings Program for a few years, Karl served for ten years as the inaugural Dan Tillemans Director of the Cornell Team and Leadership Center, a division of Cornell Outdoor Education. He designed Cornell’s Hoffman Challenge Course, provided leadership development programs for corporations such as JP Morgan Chase, and served as a trainer, consultant, and expert witness in the outdoor education field. He also taught Cornell Adult University’s popular Outdoor Thrills and Skills course for many years beginning in 1993. He is the proud namesake of two local facilities—a yurt on Mt Pleasant, in recognition of 20 years of service to Cornell Outdoor Education, and the Karl Johnson Privy in Danby State Forest, in recognition of service to the Cayuga Trails Club.

Karl received an M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources where he focused on the history and philosophy of recreation and leisure. He has received grants from Atlantic Philanthropies and The Lilly Endowment, and has guest lectured at many universities around the country. Closer to home, he has lectured in Cornell’s departments of Education, Natural Resources, and Applied Economics & Management, as well as in Ithaca College’s Department of Recreation & Leisure Studies. Karl was recognized as a 1999 Academy of Leisure Sciences Future Scholar and has received several writing awards, including the 2014 Literary Award of the Christian Society of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies. His interests include human relations with the natural landscape, from wilderness to urban environs, and his publications on related topics have appeared in Christian Scholar’s Review,Journal of Experiential Education, Leisure/Loisir, and in popular publications such as Books & Culture, Taproot, re:generation quarterly, and New York State Conservationist.

Karl founded Chesterton House in 2000 and became the organization’s full-time director in 2005. In 2008 became a founding board member of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, of which he now serves as board president. He and his family have been featured in the Ithaca Journal (PDF).